The disclosed embodiments of the present invention relate to forwarding packets, and more particularly, to a packet processing apparatus using packet processing units located at parallel packet flow paths and with different programmability.
A network switch is a computer networking device that links different electronic devices. For example, the network switch receives an incoming packet generated from a first electronic device connected to it, and transmits a modified packet or an unmodified packet derived from the received packet only to a second electronic device for which the received packet is meant to be received. To achieve better packet processing performance, the network switch may be implemented using fixed hardware circuits. However, such a network switch design has no flexibility. For example, the network switch needs to be re-designed to satisfy the requirement of a different application. Thus, there is a need for an innovative network switch design with enhanced flexibility.